1. Field of Invention
The present invention is related to semiconductor memories and in particular to a method of erasing nonvolatile memories.
2. Description of Related Art
Metal Oxide Nitride Oxide Semiconductor (MONOS) memories have been proposed for improving the scaling down of devices, improving reproducibility of such devices as Metal Oxide Nitride Semiconductor (MNOS), and at the same time provide a low voltage alterable device. In the MONOS devices used in nonvolatile memory cells, carrier trap sites that are located in the nitride film are used for capturing and storing carriers as electrical information.
A paper, E. Suzuki et al., xe2x80x9cA Low Voltage Alterable EEPROM with Metal Oxide Nitride Oxide Semiconductor (MNOS) Structuresxe2x80x9d, IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices, Vol. ED-30, No. 2, February 1983, p122-128, is directed to the use of direct tunnel injection of electrons into trap sites for write and erase of the electrons in the trap sites. The paper, Y. Tarui et al., xe2x80x9cElectrically Reprogrammable Nonvolatile Semiconductor Memoryxe2x80x9d, IEEE Journal of Solid State Circuits, Vol, SC-7, No. 5, October 1992, p369-375, is directed to programming single gate MONOS memories with thicker bottom oxide for better retention characteristics. In T. Y. Chan et al., xe2x80x9cA True Single Transistor Oxide Nitride Oxide EEPROM Devicexe2x80x9d, IEEE Electron Device Letters, Vol. EDL-8, No. 3, March 1987, p93-95, a single transistor device is directed toward storing electrons in the short region near the drain, wherein the channel near the source maintains the original threshold voltage, thereby eliminating the need for a select transistor. In B. Eitan et al., xe2x80x9cCan NROM, a 2 Bit, Trapping Storage NVM Cell, Give a Real Challenge to Floating Gate Cellsxe2x80x9d, Extended Abstracts, 1999 Conference on Solid State Devices and Materials, Tokyo, 1999, P522-524, an NROM concept is directed to store charge selectively in an ONO dielectric on one side of a diffusion edge, and to erase by hole injection, which is generated by band-to-band tunneling at the junction edge. A twin MONOS device structure separating ONO storage devices by a select (word) gate device while maintaining high density is given in U.S. Pat. No. 6,255,166 B1 and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/595,059. In the patent application Ser. No. 09/795,186, dated Mar. 1, 2001 and assigned to a common assignee, two erase methods of hole injection and F-N electron ejection are provided.
In prior art, erase is achieved by electron ejection from the ONO nitride trap sites or by hole injection into the electron trap sites, or by a combination of the two mechanisms. Hot hole injection begins when holes are created at the junction""s edge, between the high voltage diffusion region and the grounded substrate. The holes then inject into the memory nitride and cancel out the trapped electron charge. Hole injection requires lower voltages than the conventional Fowler-Nordheim tunneling electron ejection. However hole injection is primarily localized to the region above the junction edge, and can not erase the entire length of the electron-trapped nitride layer. This is why prior art required a combination of hole injection and electron ejection (by F-N tunneling) for effective erase. However, the twin MONOS device of the prior art has a very short control gate memory channel length.
FIG. 1 shows a twin MONOS cell structure of prior art in which there are two N+ bit diffusion 41 and 42, above which are are two control gates 61 and 62, between which is a word gate 63. The substrate 20 is p-type, and nitride trap layers 51t and 52t store electrons for storage underneath the control gates 61 and 62. In the twin MONOS cell shown in FIG. 1, Erase is done by hole injection using band to band generation. Electrons trapped in the ONO trap sites of 51t and 52t are neutralized by injected holes, which were generated by Band to Band tunneling at N+ junction edge 41 and 42. The bias conditions are typically Vb=+4 to +5V on bit N+ diffusions 41 and 42 and Vcg=xe2x88x921 to xe2x88x923 volts on control gate 61 and 62 while word gate 63 is grounded as shown in FIG. 2a. The voltage requirement for hole injection across the ONO film needs to be only about 5-6 megavolts/cm. However, the threshold window is adversely affected because the heavier holes cause more damage to the oxide-insulator than electrons and create trapping sites after many program and erase cycles.
Hole injection can be reduced by reducing Band to Band hot hole generation. When the same positive potential is applied to the p substrate 20, Vb=Vsub=+4 to +5 volts as shown in FIG. 2b, as applied to the bit N+ diffusion 41 and 42, the hole generation due to band to band tunneling is suppressed. Once the potential between the substrate and the control gate voltage becomes high enough ( greater than 8-10 megavolts/cm), electrons from trapped sites (51t and 52t) are ejected into silicon 31 and 32 by means of Fowler-Nordheim (FN) tunneling. However this FN erase approach requires a triple well (p-well in an n-well on a p-substrate) to isolate each memory cell block from supporting devices during positive voltage biasing of the well. Since the triple well must be deep, the triple well isolation for each block results in significant density penalty.
In these methods, erase is determined by the control gate and bit diffusion voltages. In the cases that the memory cells are arranged such that control lines and bit lines run parallel to each other, it is necessary to divide the array either electrically by select transistors or physically with separate lines in order to define the erase block size. This array division could impact density.
It is an objective of the present invention to enhance erase speed or lower the erase voltage requirement in the twin MONOS cell, by changing the distribution of high energy holes, which are created at the junction edge under the memory control gate, through the application of a negative voltage on the word gate adjacent to the selected memory control gate.
It is also an objective of the present invention to reduce erase speed in the scaled twin MONOS cell by depleting holes under the memory control gate towards the substrate through the application of a positive voltage onto the word gate adjacent to the selected memory control gate.
It is another objective of the present invention to erase by word line in the memory array, instead of by large block size, by applying a negative voltage on the selected word gate.
It is a further objective of the present invention to inhibit erase of the cell in normal erase conditions by providing a positive word channel potential adjacent to the memory channel under the control gate by applying a positive potential to the word gate, the opposite control gate and opposite control gate diffusion.
It is yet another objective of the present invention to achieve a one cell erase (or a two cell erase) in the memory array through the selection of word gate, control gate and bit diffusion voltages.
It is also another objective of the present invention to reduce hole injection for high endurance by a F-N like erase mechanism through a positive word gate voltage, a positive word channel potential, and selecting proper word gate, control gate and bit diffusions.
It is a further objective of the present invention to use negative voltage on unselected word lines to minimize disturb during programming.
The first embodiment of the present invention provides a method to control the erase speed over a range of greater than 5 orders of magnitude by application of positive and negative voltages onto the word gate of a twin MONOS memory device where the control gate channel length of about less than 50 nm, is less than several times the hole mean free path. The twin MONOS memory cell has an extremely short control gate channel length of less than several times the electron and hole mean free path length. This ultra short memory channel length, which is the result of sidewall processing techniques, provides an erase operation that is significantly influenced by the adjacent word gate channel potential. The adjacent word gate potential directly affects the distribution of the high energy holes which are created at the junction edge under the memory control gate. The present invention makes effective usage of word gate voltage to influence the word channel potential adjacent to the control gate channel, during erase and program. It should be noted that if the control gate channel is about 100 nm or more, which is longer than several times the electron and hole mean free path length, the word channel potential will not influence the adjacent channel and the schemes provided in the present invention will not be effective.
In the second embodiment of the present invention block erase is defined by the selection of a word line. A block to be erased can be as small as a single word line, or as large as multiple word lines. The nitride trap regions underlying control gates of a selected word line and associated with negatively biased control gates are erased at the same with the application of a negatively applied voltage to a selected word line. The nitride trap regions underlying control gates of an unselected word line with a positive applied bias are not erased.
In the third embodiment of the present invention a single cell erase is provided. A single MONOS cell contains two adjacent nitride trap sites (storage sites). Both storage sites are erased on a selected word line by applying a negative voltage to the control gate associated with the two storage sites. Other storage sites sharing the same control line and bit line are not erased if the unselected word lines associated with those cells are biased with a positive voltage.
In the fourth embodiment of the present invention a slower and more reliable method of erase is provided which increases the endurance of the memory cell. This is a F-N like method of erase which uses the word line voltage. Bias of the substrate of the memory cell is not necessary. Both word lines and bit lines are raised to a positive voltage and the control gates are biased with a negative voltage. This produces a high electric field across the ONO film creating the trap sites. The voltages are selected to produce higher field than is necessary for hole injection. The hole injection at the junction is suppressed by the high word line voltage.
In the fifth embodiment of the present invention program disturb of unselected cells is improved. This is accomplished by lowering the voltage on an unselected word line to a small negative voltage. This can improve the time for disturb up to a few seconds. This improvement can also be obtained by increasing the voltage of the right adjacent bit line.